I Was So Ill Walking Was Impossible When a Man Virtually Carried Me to a Bathroom.

Back when I was 19 years old, my regular journey to work meant taking an express bus. The vehicle was always jammed and was consistently without any seats by the time I stepped aboard.

On one specific day, I began feeling incredibly sick when the coach rocked around every turn. I repeatedly told myself to endure for a few more stops until the bus arrived at my destination, so I could then make a mad dash to the closest washroom to vomit.

We were coming down the road leading to the stop when I realised I wasn’t going to last. All of a sudden, it seemed a veil came over me. The world became blank and silent; like someone had cut the sound. I said to myself, “I’m going to faint”.

Fortunately, I stood near the front inside the vehicle, so I managed a couple of steps forward and requested that the driver to pull over, informing him I needed to get ill. He opened the doors and I weakly exited on to the pavement.

My intention was to avoid being sick before six lanes of traffic, so I forced myself up and started trying to make my way to the park opposite the street, thinking I could I could at least secretly conceal myself behind a bush to be sick. However I must have fainted. I was aware of my body but I couldn’t walk or see properly, so I began crawling towards the grassy area.

“You right, love?”

At that moment, someone picked me up. There was a strong arm supporting me and a man’s voice asked, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the kind passerby that I had to to get to a bathroom. So he virtually supported my weight over to a close-by structure and put me into the female bathroom. He wanted to know whether I required him to stay with me but I said no.

A few minutes later, I regained my composure enough to sit down and from the other side of the stall I heard his voice asking, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I could not to get up just then but did manage to express my gratitude and following a brief period recovered the use of my limbs. I got myself home and then spent the following days getting over what was later diagnosed as a nasty tummy bug.

I never glimpsed his features – just his lower half and the big container for tools he had with him – but he helped me, at a moment I was in my weakest state.

Many times, life can make you guarded, hostile, and combative. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that hardening of the heart. He was proof that our default setting is to be kind, something I love in other people.